Quotas Demean Our Physicians

Congratulations Lehigh Valley Hospital trustees! Your new open heart surgery quota system has elevated Valley heart surgeons to the prestigious level of the used car salesperson.

Heart surgeons at Lehigh Valley Hospital not meeting yearly quotas will be forced to adopt new, creative marketing strategies like: Valve replacement rebates, double green stamps for weekend and holiday procedures, and the popular after-Christmas husband-wife package deal --that's two bypasses for one low price. And don't forget about the double your money back guarantee when you don't survive an elective operation.

Quotas are great for Japanese imports, but surgical quotas are bad medicine for us. It's bad enough that you check into a hospital and immediately become a statistic. It's worse to have a burned-out surgeon tinkering around your heart just to meet a hospital quota.